April 2016

The first plants are starting to grow and flower and a great variety of birds have returned to the property. Above is a photo of moss sprouting. After so many months of snow it is fitting that the first flowers coming up (seen below) are "Glory of the Snow" (the blue-purple flowers in bunches) and "Russian Snowdrops" (the small white flowers with light blue stripes in petals). The fuzzy yellow bud and caterpillar-like flowers are flowering pussy willow buds.

One of my favorite spring birds to see is the American Woodcock. These birds look a bit like sandpipers, and are in the shorebird family, but spend most of their time far from any shore. They like to live in the woods and poke around in the ground looking for worms. These birds have an unusual flexible beak that can feel worms underground. The flexible tip of the beak can open to grasp the worms while the beak is buried deep into the soil. Woodcocks also have an incredible field of vision that allows them to see in almost all directions around themselves at once. Those big eyes give them great night vision too. In the evenings I hear them doing their mating ritual which involves buzzing, chirping and doing their characteristic repeated looping flights over the lawn. Seeing these guys walking around during the day is entertaining. They have a most unusual cautious slow walk and constant bobbing motion like they are walking on springs.

I've started work on a little vegetable and flower garden which of course will be very interesting to all the deer around here. In one of the photos below you can see the garden dig site in progress with deer in the background. They are telling me to hurry up and get their meal planted! I have my own plans though and it involves a fence. If that doesn't work then when they come for their lunch they might end up being mine.

On one rare occasion we saw the deer appearing in daylight. They strolled down a driveway, across a road and took some time in our field. A day or so later the same trio came back at dusk to graze in the lawn only about 10 yards from the windows.

Our American Bitterns are back again at the pond. I allow them to stay long enough for a snack and then I encourage them to work on another pond. The bitterns and herons are nice to see but I'd really like to keep our frogs, fish and turtle populations high to help combat the biting flies that will emerge soon. The bitterns and herons will just have to go somewhere else to feed on frogs and fish. These bitterns blend in very well with marsh plants and when approached they try to hide by posing as a plant. They will stand still and point their beaks up in the air so their striped coloration and shape resembles marsh reeds.

We decided it was time to refill the bird feeder and as soon as we did it became a very busy focal point for birds, squirrels and chipmunks. Here the American Red Squirrel, some Purple Finches (actual color of purple finches isn't purple at all but rosy) and a Blue Jay are enjoying the seeds. One morning I saw almost a dozen blue jays at once feeding around the bird feeder! I've only ever seen them one at a time, or in migrating flocks high in the sky, but have never before seen so many up close all at once like that. Apparently around here when the word gets out about a new bird feeder open for business then things go wild!

Mum wanted a picture of her African Violet which she grew from a single leaf cutting. It was a perfect blooming plant all winter.

A female Hooded Merganser visited the pond again this spring. One just like it visited at about the same time last spring. I hope to see a male along with it sometime as those have nice colors and would be fun to photograph. This little bird was surprisingly good at diving and catching sunfish in the pond. You wouldn't think it could swim underwater fast enough to keep up with fish but it had no problem snatching fish from the water. Ducks at urban duck ponds are easy to approach and photograph but the ones out here are very shy and quick to take flight as soon as they notice me. It seems they consider our pond to be part of the wilderness so they don't expect to see people. I've learned to be strategic about where and how I approach the pond if I want to get any photos.

You can't blame the ducks, woodcocks and squirrels for being so alert and wary in an environment like this as we have so many large predators around. This winter I watched what I believed was some sort of owl flying low over the fields during the day. I finally got some better shots of the bird and was able to identify it as a Northern Harrier hawk. These owl-like hawks fly low over fields looking and listening for mice in the brush.

We're also seeing lots of giant Turkey Vultures back again. In the southwest these birds are simply known as "buzzards". The Native people consider an encounter with a bird of prey to be a lucky omen. I'd like to think of it that way too, rather than the way they were depicted in old westerns. In those movies when the buzzards are circling you it probably wasn't a good sign. I know I had a hard winter with many sleepless nights keeping the fires going, so when I saw these vultures flying low over me I figured I must look pretty rough after that winter ordeal and maybe I should start taking care of myself. I've decided it's kind of insulting and bad for my self-esteem to be circled by buzzards so I need to put a stop to this!

Even our cat, "Cubby", has seen the big birds of prey and knows not to put himself out in the open. When he goes outside he makes a mad dash for the trees where he can take cover from the sky. Then on his return to the house he will make a frantic race back to the door. There certainly are birds large enough to take a cat and he knows it! In fact last spring I saw Devon walking across the field with an enormous eagle flying low over him from behind. It sure looked like the bird was sizing him up for lunch!

In the photos below Cubby is seen doing what he never usually does: strolling around in the open. I was down at the end of the driveway checking mail and taking my time photographing a woodpecker in a tree. He watched me from the house for the longest time and then decided to cautiously make his way down the driveway toward me. My presence out there gave him some confidence and curiosity to stray out into the open but not enough to come all the way to the road. He waited for me halfway down the driveway and wouldn't come any closer without coaxing. As we walked back to the house together he once again felt insecure, then made a bolt for the front door and waited for me there. I am glad he has the instincts to stay close to the house and always seek cover. He wouldn't have lasted this long if he didn't have those instincts!

This Hairy Woodpecker below is the bird I was trying to photograph that evening when the cat met me on the driveway. It was gusty in the treetops as you can see by the feathers on the bird getting blown about.

There are a lot of small sparrow-sized birds visiting the garden now. Many of the birds look similar and can be tricky to identify without a good long look at the markings. The bird above is a song sparrow singing its heart out. The first photo below is also a song sparrow in the dewy grass. The pair of birds in the spruce tree, and in the next photo on the grass, are White-throated Sparrows. The black, grey and white bird with yellow markings is a Yellow-rumped Warbler. The last bird in this set, feeding on the ground, is a Pine Siskin.

The last of the snow and ice is melting in the forest and on the lakes. Toward the end of the month some interesting plants began sprouting in the woods too. The plant with dark leaves is Blue Cohosh. At this stage of growth the leaves look like claws reaching from the leaf litter. As the plant matures the leaves will turn deep green and fan out to form a low three foot tall canopy in the shady forest. I also found an intact milkweed seedpod on the ground in the field.

Colorful and noisy Northern Flickers are back in the garden. They spend a lot of time on the ground digging for worms and grubs. These birds also enjoy hammering at trees like woodpeckers. I've seen many of these adult birds but this year also saw for the first time what looks like a juvenile flicker in a tree.

Back at the pond the Painted Turtles have become active again and the spring peepers (little frogs) are singing like crazy. One of the greatest sightings for me this month was seeing a pair of Wood Ducks on the pond. They visited last year but I wasn't stealthy enough to get a photo. This time I was able to get a few shots. They are one of the most colorful ducks and in a wild environment also one of the most difficult to sneak up on to take photos. I was very lucky to get any at all. The wood ducks have visited a couple times this year and hopefully will return again during daylight so I might try for more photos.